Since Fri asked...

I did, in fact, make beans and rice.
Using a set of instructions from Fridays Child.

Lots o beans.

I figured the instructions were prolly for
two or three portions with some left over...
So I doubled everything.
Woooo Boy,..  that's a lot o beans.
Everybody loved it.

We had beans and rice sunday.
Beans (and other stuff) over baked potatoes tuesday.
For tuesday I spit the remainder of the beans into two
Put the meat from ham hocks into a batch for daughter and I
Left the other alone for boy (vegetarian) and wife.

I used a black beans and pinto beans.
I would like to try lima beans (like Fri)
but knew the family (erm children)  would balk.

Many thanks to Fri for the instructions.

Just back from vacation,...

Left Saturday,.. came back today.
I was on call at work for the previous 7 days.
Worked somewhere near 90 hours.

What did I do on vacation,..
practically nothing.

Thanks for asking.

OK,..

The Scottish woman,..
The "frumpy" one...
The singer,...
The internet sensation,..
No,..
I'm not gonna criticize her
I just saw a little blurb in the paper.
Apparently,.. she is dealing with a lot of stress.
Honestly,... the big bad world is gonna eat her alive.
As a human being,.. I feel for her.

Yes,.. I have watched the youtube thing.
The miraculous discovery...
The flabbergasted judges,...
The stunned audience...

So,..  lets review,...
There were how many people in the audience?
Hundreds for sure...
So,..
This prolly wasn't the kind of gig where
there was a queue of three thousand people
in the alley waiting for their chance on the stage.
So,...
The folks that appeared on stage that night,...
had auditioned before,... for,...
somebody,.. Somebody,.. SOMEBODY
FOR GAWD SAKE PEOPLE....
DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE NOBODY
HAD EVER HEARD THIS WOMAN SING?

erm,.. Sorry.

It's the beginning of the decent into
the crappy futuristic movies
where decent normal people
are manipulated into doing things
so that the rest of the world can ridicule them.
and feel better about themselves.

Sorry,..
I'm not tuning in.

Don't know how much it would have cost to have a plumber come in and replace the bad element in my hot water heater,...

But I bet it would have been more than the $9.47 it cost to buy the thing and put it in myself.

Course I spent some time on it but...

Still

Yup,..
really,...
really,..
busy,...

I'm still here.

So,..  twice in the last two weeks I have gotten phone calls like:

Paraphase.

Hello this is Bank Services.
We need to contact you to discuss reducing the rate on your credit cards.
blah,.. blah,...
please stay on the line for your account representative.

OK,.. Now
1). I am on the do not call list.
2). Well frankly is anyone falling for this?

So here I am on the first call.

person on the other end of the phone --> Hello do you have a visa or mastercard account

me --> yes,.. what company do you represent?

potoeotp --> Visa and Mastercard

me --> Visa and Mastercard are trade names not companies.

potoeotp --> Go to Hell Go to Hell Go to Hell {click}

Something fishy going on with that company.

Second Call started pretty much the same ..

Once I got on the actual call...
(I am afraid we were doomed from the start,..
I could barely tell that the fellow was trying to speak english)

potoeotp --> Hello,.. Who am I speaking to?

me --> Doug

potoeotp --> blah,.. blah blah,... blahblahblah,... blah?

me --> what company do you represent?

potoeotp --> (twice as fast) blah,.. blah blah,... blahblahblah,... blah?

me --> what company do you represent?

potoeotp --> Can you hear me?

me --> yes,.. Can you hear me?

potoeotp --> yes

me --> what company do you represent?

potoeotp --> click!

I may just resort to the "Maybe this could be amusing to lead you on,.. and at least you would be fsking someone else while I have you occupied with me" line of attack.

Man I hate this sort of crap.

On a Visual Web Site design tool. 

Baby Steps people,...
baby steps...

Ain't that purdy

really it is....

Lets see,..

In no particular order,..

Son's birthday.
Car is getting 22 or so mpg.
Still recovering from a 90-something hour on call week.
St Patty's day with friends on stage... what a hoot.
Finally got over the big learning curve and am re-doing the music site.
Lost somewhere around 10 lbs.

Back to work on the music site.

St Pattys

He seems to be doing fine with it.
A lot of his generation are veggies.
Including one fellow who was vegan.
(still is for all I know)

So the frig now has hummus
Some soy protein things etc...

I guess not actually vegetarian,..
He has decided that sea food is ok.
Not sure why,..

He was served notice
that we are not making two meals each meal.
But,..  Mrs DD and I have been trying to help
Tonight I made chili with crab meat instead of beef.
I prolly would have preferred chicken but,..

At any rate it turned out ok.

Change the air filter in your car.

I've been really disappointed in my gas milage.
It IS winter,.. and we have that crap ethanol gas.
But honestly I drive mostly highway.

I used to get 25 mpg on the highway with the thing.
I was lucky to be getting 19.

Then it occurred to me that I hadn't
changed the air filter since I bought the thing,..

erm,... three years ago.
53,000 miles ago.

Now I am really good about oil and filter changes.

I look to be back up in the 22 mpg range after replacing the air filter.

I'll keep ya posted.